In yesterday’s gold-medal game at the FIBA European Championships, Spain made their opening-round hiccup against Serbia look exactly like what it was — a random hiccup. In a rematch with Serbia, Pau Gasol‘s crew waxed the opposition, going up by 15 in the first quarter, making it a 20-piece McNugget by the second quarter, and ultimately winning by 22. Big brother Gasol led the way with 18 points, 11 boards and three blocks, while Rudy Fernandez scored 13 and J.C. Navarro added 12 points. Ricky Rubio had 10 points and one assist. Spain dominated the glass, getting almost as many offensive boards (18) as Serbia had total rebounds (24).Uros Tripkovic and Novica Velickovic led the silver medalists with 15 points apiece … Pau was named MVP of the tournament, as he was the leading scorer (18.6 ppg) and shot-blocker (2.2 bpg), and second-leading rebounder (8.3 rpg). Gasol and Fernandez (13.6 ppg, 2.1 spg) made the all-tournament team along with Serbia’s Milos Teodosic (14.1 ppg, 5.2 apg), Slovenia’s Erazem Lorbek (16.4 ppg, 7.4 rpg) and Greece’s Vassilis Spainoulis (14.1 ppg, 4.2 apg) … Meanwhile, Sofoklis Schortsanitis, a.k.a. “Baby Shaq,” put up 23 points in Greece’s bronze-medal win over Slovenia; Tony Parker and Boris Diaw sat out France’s fifth-place game against Croatia and Ronny Turiaf only played about 10 minutes (France already clinched their spot in next year’s World Championships), but they won anyway, getting 18 points from Antoine Diot … Russia smacked Turkey to take 7th place behind Vitaly Fridzon‘s 26 points (7 threes) and five dimes. Omer Asik, a 7-footer who was drafted by the Blazers in ’08, led Turkey with 24 points and 11 boards, while Hedo Turkoglu had four points on 1-for-6 shooting … Michael Beasley checked out of rehab yesterday and is ready to resume being a beast on the court. “He’s OK. He’s got his head together. He’s happy,” Beasley’s dad told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “He talked about the decisions he made that got him where he was. And once he took responsibility for that, then he took the program more seriously.” … And if Beasley needs a quick cautionary tale, he need look no further than Antoine Walker; all the talent in the world without the discipline (on-court and off) to maximize his potential. You can probably chalk it up to the outstanding casino debts, but ‘Toine is apparently trying to get back in the League. He’s reportedly talking to four teams and is expecting a training camp invite. Does this somehow become a scenario where ‘Toine finishes his career as Paul Pierce‘s backup? That would be too weird … Speaking of the Celtics, their local Boston Globe gave ex-Celtics GM and current Grizzlies mastermind Chris Wallace the floor to defend some recent moves. Regarding the Pau Gasol giveaway: “No offense to Pau, who is obviously a terrific player and greatly enhanced the Lakers and I think put them over the top, but it just wasn’t happening in the direction we were going,” Wallace. “I am not a critic who is going to assess this from afar, [but] you have to do what is best for your franchise, and if the Lakers win a championship as a byproduct, God bless them.” In Wallace’s defense, nobody is saying the Grizzlies shouldn’t have traded Gasol when they did — as we recall, Pau seemed disillusioned with the losing and Memphis wasn’t going anywhere anyway — but the return Wallace got from the Lakers was laughable … One guy who doesn’t have a problem getting the players he wants is Coach K. According to HighSchoolHoop.com’s Jason Jordan, over the weekend Coach K made some big strides in potentially landing two of the top point guards in high school ball, New Jersey’s Kyrie Irving and Florida’s Austin Rivers (son of Doc Rivers). No big deal normally, except Irving had previously been believed to be real close to signing with Indiana, and Rivers is supposedly verbally committed to Florida. In a related note, Irving wrote a Twitter post the other day asking Indiana fans to stop sending him angry messages. They’re just KIDS, people … Finally, shout-out to the New York Giants for yesterday’s 33-31 win over the Dallas Cowboys Football Stadium. (Oh wait, the Giants were actually playing against the Dallas players? Could’ve fooled us with the way everyone covered it.) … While we’re talking football, is it an ESPN house rule that whenever Stuart Scott does an on-site report for Monday Night Football, he either has to start off by having somebody throw him a ball, or he has to throw a ball himself during the segment? What is he trying to prove? … We’re out like ‘Toine …

Join The Discussion

Chris Wallace is correct about Pau going in a different direction, he was finished with getting his ass beat every day.

What a moron.

09.21.09 at 3:38 am

hater

i don’t get it.. what way was it covered?

09.21.09 at 3:47 am

Kevin

@hater — All the media talked about all week was the Cowboys stadium. Jerry Jones got more camera time than any of the players.

09.21.09 at 4:46 am

vince

did anybody spot the new converse ads yet?

09.21.09 at 6:16 am

mavs all the way

boom boom pau!
this is a better year for pau compared last year huh? last year, they got waxed by the C’s and then lost at the olympics. this year, he won the chip in fiba and the nba. good for him. now, when can we say the exact words for marc ‘scratch yo balls’ gasol? i’d say…. never.

09.21.09 at 6:38 am

sans

DIME, wtf’s with your poll? You don’t think that Ben gordon is going to lead the Bulls in scoring, but Salmons might?

How many overpaid nights of 4 pts, 1-6 shooting will the Raptors take on before realizing that Hedo is not an AllStar?

09.21.09 at 6:45 am

sh!tfaced

^^^ ben gordon is already with the pistons.

stuart scott needs to throw/catch the football because he can’t get over what happened to his eye back in ’02…

09.21.09 at 6:48 am

Flip

Having watched the Euro final, I have to say I was impressed with Rubio’s play. He was impressive on offense and while he only registered 1 assist, his passes to Gasol and Fernandez usually led to easy drives that sent them to the line. As a result, Rubio didn’t get many assists, but helped his team greatly on offense.
That being said, his defense needs some work. He was very active, got his hands on passes and hustled for loose balls, but his opponent usually lost him on screens by Serbia’s big men, resulting in drive and dish opportunities that Serbia fortunately couldn’t convert BC of Gasol’s presence underneath the basket.

09.21.09 at 6:50 am

Trey bing bay

@sans – Errr Ben Gordon is with the Pistons now. Keep up son.

09.21.09 at 7:53 am

mumadone

i think that in european ball you only get an assist if the guy doesn’t dribble after he get your pass and then scores. It used to be like that anyway, therefor very low assist numbers.

09.21.09 at 8:17 am

That's whats up

@post 4 – I was thinkin’ the same thing

I thought I was on Nickelodeon.com for a minute

……but DIME is gettin’ real paid for this (woot! woot!)

09.21.09 at 8:52 am

Gerard

What is this background? It slows down the site wayyyy too much.

09.21.09 at 9:10 am

BCap

Can you post an explanation for why Rubio is putting up such modest numbers? Honestly I know the Euro game is more predicated on team work, but other dudes are doing work and he seems straight trash. Is he not getting minutes? what is it, seriously…

09.21.09 at 9:18 am

Chicagorilla

shoutout to “DA BEARS” can’t believe we actually won that game. No cheating penalties or nothing, just outplayed the champs baby!

Toine….go back to sleep. You are embarassing Chicago/Kentucky at the same time. He barely made wide open 3’s on pros v joes.

I hope to god Beastly doesn’t become another Walker, instead of being an Benard King/Derrick Coleman inside out type player that he can/should be. Toine used to avg like 9 rebounds a game, then Stern moved the 3point line and that fool lost his mind.

09.21.09 at 9:32 am

karizmatic

I really could see the whole Toine backing up Paul Pierce thing, it would be hilarious.

09.21.09 at 9:38 am

EN FUEGO

Toine is desperate and in debt enough to accept a job as Pierce’s back up. From employee no. 8 to janitor/scrub no. 8

09.21.09 at 9:57 am

rangerjohn

holy crap dime, not liking the new look at all.

09.21.09 at 10:22 am

Cha-Ching

Jerry, how much for the jumbo screen in my crib? 60 yards long, damn. Cowboys loss was the funny part. Eli’s two minute drill was nice.

GO BEARS!!! Knox has moved into my starting line up on Madden 10.

09.21.09 at 10:30 am

Cha-Ching

Dime, please show some love to NBA center LeRoy Ellis. He won a ring with my favorite team, da Lakers, in 1972. He has cancer and only has so much time left. Love to Tex Winter also. His health is questionable also.

09.21.09 at 10:37 am

dial up

Rubio was straight trash the WHOLE olympics. Everybody else is putting up numbers, so whats the excuse that Rubio continues to put up backup pg numbers. Without Gasol and his bro, Spain woulda been eaten up.

Rubios defense needs huge improvement, and he hasn’t gotten any better since the last olympics where he registered 8 and 4. I mean SERIOUSLY????? This is why nba gms lose their job picking random kids outta the international pool.

09.21.09 at 10:48 am

That's whats up

Hedo’s shooting percentages in this tourney remind me of when he played for the Spurs – straight garbage

09.21.09 at 10:51 am

That's whats up

Stuart Scott does that because a football is what gave him that glass eye

09.21.09 at 10:56 am

DaGood

@dial up:

so, you would have prefered Rubio to get higher individual stats?

My guess is that he probably doesn’t care what you think because Spain just destroyed the competition and won their first Euro championship with him as their 18 y/o starting PG.

09.21.09 at 11:26 am

Nukky G.

What’s good Dime?

So I was scowering youtube for Texas’ Jordan Shipley’s punt return td (where he apparently almost got gored by the actual Longhorn afterwards) and naturally, I got off-topic and started watching unrelated vids…

Anyways, in the event of a slow day in the basketball world, I figured I’d share this video;

Too good.

09.21.09 at 11:38 am

jzsmoove

Cant wait for NBA preseason games to start. the drought is on again after FIBA. Antoine Walker doesnt deserve to be in the league anymore. Give cheese to younger and more deserving cats.

09.21.09 at 11:49 am

Jaytea

Stuart Scott just trying to proove them goofy eyes can’t hold him down.

09.21.09 at 12:11 pm

F

Rubio’s goal was to set up the offense for Pau, Rudy and Navarro to score, and to defend opposing point guard. From what I saw, he did both very well (the last week of the tournament anyway).
He did not shoot the ball well in the first games, and was slightly better after that.
You can’t judge european ball only on stats, or you might be completely wrong. We’re talking team basketball here.

09.21.09 at 1:26 pm

luckylester

Did anybody see the heaps of cage dancers scattered throughout the Cowboys’ new stadium?

haha….

I don’t care what anybody says about getting rid of Pau, you don’t trade his ace to get rid of salary and then trade for Zach Randolph a year and a half later. I read lots of stuff about what other teams were offering to get Pau, the Lakers offered the most pathetic package.

09.21.09 at 1:42 pm

BUshhsines

100% agree with F and DaGood.

As I said in another post, Ricky will not gaet many stats on this team; you have to judge him as you see him play. The stat sheet is not enough to have an opinion about what he did.
He will never get points because the offense is mainly for Pau, Navarro and Rudy. As other options before him you have Garbajosa (ex-Raptors) or Reyes.
He will never get many assists because on FIBA it’s not so easy to be given and also the offense starts mainly and mostly when JCNavarro (or Rudy) gets a screen or when Pau gets the ball on the post. On neither offense systems will he get an assist.
So you have to see the kid play to judge him.
He held Tony parker to 1/8 without being helped. On the next game he had his usual numbers ; 28 points 10 dimes.
He held Spanoulis (ex-Rockets) to 7 points one night after (he was in the mvp starting lineup of the championship).
He held Teodosic, (also in the mvp lineup) to 5 points. Remember this player had 32 points and 6 threes on the previous night.

Just to see why you can’t rely on the stats and compare it to the nba stats is that Ricky was seventh on assists per game with 3.9 and the first had 4.6.

09.21.09 at 2:05 pm

Gunner J. Matthews

I guess Stuart Scott is trying to prove he can catch the ball when he KNOWS it’s coming to him

09.21.09 at 2:09 pm

knock knock

Um, DId you watch the Spain – France game or are you just thinking he shut parker down because he was pg. Rudy was trapping and the same with every free Spanish player would help defend Tony. ITS CALLED TEAMWORK. In fact, Rudy had a horrible game with 4 turnovers to his 4 assists. Only Rudy fernandez held parker down. What idiots comment on this blog, Rubio is Trash.

09.21.09 at 2:10 pm

knock knock

“RIcky” had a horrible game. Fuckin spanish ppl

09.21.09 at 2:13 pm

Dial up

BUSHINESS- If RICky actually indeed shut those people down you claim he did, WHy didn’t he make the all tournament team???

Because he didn’t shut anyone down, played mediocre throughout Eurobasket. I actually live in Europe and watched the game live. No media outlet has praised this kid of doing well in the tournament, you should know why. Dumbass

09.21.09 at 2:26 pm

BUshhsines

Dial up –> I think by what you write in your post that we can all make an idea of the mental damage you have suffered. I have watched all the games of Spain, and almost all the games that have been played. Not just read the media like you so my opinion is less biased than yours. Adressing your question of why he wasn’t on the tournament team even a fool can see that the champion gets 2 players on that team and the other 3 teams that reached the semifinal got 1 player. That also can tell you why Tony Parker dind’t make it as he was the best PG of the championship.

knock knock –> As I said before I have almost watched the entire competition and I watched all the games Spain played. Spain never played zone neither doubled teamed any player in the entire competition. Ricky defended Tony parker very very well, as he did with all the other players I mentioned. Rudy also played great defense but he was never on TParker. If you had seen the game, and not only watched the stats you would have known. The other PG that defended TParker and should get his credit was Raul Lopez (ex-jazz).

09.21.09 at 3:42 pm

doc

Enough with the Rubio bullshit.He aint make the jump so bring him up when he do.And FUCK DREW BREES!